The Economist as Plumber

Esther Duflo

No 23213, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: As economists increasingly help governments design new policies and regulations, they take on an added responsibility to engage with the details of policy making and, in doing so, to adopt the mindset of a plumber. Plumbers try to predict as well as possible what may work in the real world, mindful that tinkering and adjusting will be necessary since our models gives us very little theoretical guidance on what (and how) details will matter. This essay argues that economists should seriously engage with plumbing, in the interest of both society and our discipline.

JEL-codes: A1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pke
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Published as Esther Duflo, 2017. "The Economist as Plumber," American Economic Review, vol 107(5), pages 1-26.

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